The Inevitable
by motorcity.horror
Summary: When the Motorcity Machine Guns sat down for an Easter weekend gaming marathon, this was not what they expected to happen. But now that it has, they must somehow survive..
1. Chapter 1

**Easter : The Inevitable**

**Disclaimer: Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin are the intellectual property of whoever happens to hold their contract, or possibly of themselves, I'm really not sure. Either way, this is not intended to infringe upon any copyrights or trademarks, and is most definitely not written for profit of any kind. Oh, and Maybury State Park belongs (or however possession of parks works) to the state of Michigan.**

**Warnings: Swearing, some violence, concepts that may be offensive to some.**

It happened on Easter. The irony of that fact wasn't lost on Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin. But this wasn't a time for irony; their whole world had shifted, and they just had to deal with the here and now.

They didn't even realise that it was starting. It was Good Friday, and they had a whole weekend stretched out before them, which they were going to fill with video games, beer, and Chatroulette. Shelley had journeyed to Sabin's home for the event, knowing that Sabin had most of the consoles and games already at his disposal, and, Shelley had joked, it was close to the hospital so that when Sabin drank himself into oblivion, he wouldn't need to be dragged that far for help.

That was the first mistake.

But Shelley had arrived without any trouble, burger bags in hand, and had happily accepted the beer offered to him. He sank into the couch, took a game controller from the floor, and went to his happy place – food, beer and games. It did require some focus to juggle the food and the controller, but Shelley quickly remembered the reason for loading screens (to take hasty bites out of your food, of course), and once his dinner was finished, he could relax into the game.

They stayed like that for several hours, playing games, joking, squabbling about who would get the next round of beers out of the fridge. Several hours in, they heard an ambulance go by. Sabin, being so used to it, tuned the sound out and fragged Shelley. Swearing, Shelley turned back to the TV, putting the sound out of his mind. As he was waiting to respawn, he turned the TV up so that he wouldn't be distracted again.

It was 2am when Sabin started yawning, so he paused the game and stumbled into the kitchen. While he got an energy drink out of the fridge, he tried to loosen the muscles in his legs so the trip back to the lounge wouldn't be as uncomfortable. Upon re-entering the room, though, he didn't find the sight he had expected. Sabin had walked in with an insult on the tip of his tongue, expecting to find Shelley in front of a muted TV, fragging him over and over. But all he saw was his tag team partner standing by the window with the curtain pulled aside, a quizzical look on his face as he stared along the road. Sabin opened his mouth to ask him what he was doing, but just at that moment another ambulance drove past, with flashing lights but no siren. This was not normal, and he knew it. No matter the hour, the ambulances (for this hospital, anyway, Sabin reasoned) would keep lights and sirens on, waking up whoever they happened to. This oddity aside, though, Sabin couldn't figure out what the problem was. He took a step closer to Shelley, but at that moment, the other man turned around.

"Hey man, what are you-" Sabin started, but was cut off by Shelley, still with that same confused look on his face.

"Let's go outside for a minute."

Shrugging, Sabin followed, grabbing his keys as he went, suspecting that Shelley was going to try to lock him outside. But Shelley simply walked up the driveway, turned, and stared down the road at the hospital.

"What are you..." Sabin tried to ask again, but this time his voice trailed off. Shelley had clearly already seen what was happening, but this was the first time Sabin had. In front of the hospital, not just the ER, but all available space on the road, and even in some of the parking lots, were ambulances. Most of them still had their lights on, but none with sirens. As they watched, an ambulance drove in from the other direction, and came to a stop in front of the hospital, taking the place of another that had just pulled out. A paramedic jumped out of the vehicle, running to the back and throwing the doors open, assisting the others within to remove a stretcher that contained, from what the two men could see, a thrashing body.

As one, the two men turned to head back into the house, knowing better than to go and take a closer look, but having seen all they could see from the driveway. Shelley picked up the remote and flipped through the channels, looking for something – some kind of accident or attack – that might account for so many ambulances at that time of night. But when he found nothing, Sabin grabbed his laptop, swore when he saw what was on the screen after having left the browser open at Chatroulette, and looked up his preferred news site. He quickly scrolled through, but couldn't find a single article that might shed some light on what was happening.

"Chris, I can't find anything. What the hell is happening?" Shelley asked, throwing the remote down in a huff.

"No idea. There's nothing anywhere about an attack or an accident or even a case of mass food poisoning. I don't get it. Let's just keep playing – maybe there'll be something reported when the sun comes up."

"Yeah, I guess." Shelley agreed, changing the TV back so that the game could be played again. Just before he went to resume it, though, Sabin interrupted him.

"Leave the curtains open, will you? I want to see if any more come by."

Shelley nodded his agreement, and once the request was completed, they went back to playing.

**

"Here we are on site at Maybury State Park, where just moments ago the Spring Egg Hunt begun. All over there are excited children and their parents, hunting for eggs and looking forward to the events later on! Yes, there will be face painting and...what the fuck is that?" The camera, previously focused on the impeccably presented reporter with the wide smile, swung sharply to the right to focus on a body just emerging from the trees. From a distance, it appeared to be someone splashed with red paint, perhaps still drunk from the night before, given how he was stumbling. But then he came to a sudden stop, and the footage showed his head snapping up. Then he was running.

The smiling parents didn't even know what hit them. In a moment, the person was all over them, and screams rang out across the clearing. Parents, realising that something wasn't right, ran to collect their children, but at that moment several more bodies erupted from the trees, apparently drawn by the screams. They seemed indiscriminate in who they attacked – men, women or children, it didn't matter.

"Jesus Jimmy, stop filming, get in the fucking truck!" The reporter could be heard screaming, out of breath from the run. As if snapped out of a trance, the cameraman – Jimmy – turned and the sound of footsteps could be heard as he started to run, but this got the attention of the nearest attacker. While standing still, he had been ignored, but as soon as he started to run, the person's head had snapped up, face covered in blood, and not paint like it had originally seemed. It quickly scrambled up and starting running, and a few seconds later another man could be heard screaming. Tyres screeched as the truck drove away.

The last image transmitted before the signal cut out was of the body of a woman attacked. It had been still a moment ago, but then it jerked and started to rise.

**

Sabin and Shelley stared at the now black TV screen, mouths agape.

"This has to be some kind of joke."

**


	2. Chapter 2

**

"Alex, those were kids. Adults I could understand, because there are some seriously twisted people in this world, but making kids play along? No way. That was not a setup."

After the shock had worn off from what they'd just seen, Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin had reacted. They had joked about it so often, even stating that they had a response plan for the inevitable, but they really weren't sure how to proceed. They always thought it would be like a plague, rolling across the land, not that they would witness the beginning of it. Sabin had run to the door and locked it, then moved around to every window and close every curtain. As Sabin was doing this, Shelley was thrashing about in the kitchen. He was gathering all the non-perishable goods, torches and supplies he could find that he thought might be useful. After running it all upstairs, he had looked for any weapon that he could find. He ran upstairs again, this time with Sabin behind him, turning off all lights downstairs as he went.

They ran into Sabin's study and locked the door behind them, turning to face each other.

"TV," Shelley said, picking up the remote and turning it on.

"Internet," Sabin agreed, pulling out the chair so that he could sit down and started to check the news sites.

It seemed that on every channel and every news website, they were talking about the brutal attack that had happened in Maybury State Park. But the Guns saw no mention of how the attackers had mysteriously multiplied, and when the footage was replayed – with the longest discretionary warning that they had ever seen – how they attackers were mysteriously wearing the exact same clothes as those attacked a minute before.

They were discussing what it could possibly be, neither wanting to be the first to say what they were both thinking, but they could come up with no alternatives. After a moment of silence between them, with the TV still replaying the screams of the egg hunters, Alex Shelley took a deep breath.

"So then... zombies?" He said it in a professional manner, as if they were discussing what they were going to do during a promo or in a match, as if it wasn't the most absurd thing he had ever said.

Sabin looked at the TV again, saw the woman rising and then the footage cutting to black, bit his lip and nodded. "Looks like, yes."

"Then we need to figure out what we have, what we need to get. Even if we need to get out before it gets too-"Shelley stopped speaking mid sentence as an ambulance drove by, it's siren sounding clearly. They looked up at each other, horror etched on both their faces. They ran to the window, threw it open, stuck their heads outside and looked down the road at the hospital. It seemed quiet now, with the ambulance driving away from it, but if it was what they thought, that would change quickly. The hospital would become a hot zone for death and destruction."Chris?"

"Yeah?"

"How long since that first attack?"

"Can't have been more than twenty minutes."

"And what was happening last night?"

There was a pause as Sabin thought about it.

"We already need to be out of here, don't we?"

Bringing his head back into the room, Shelley considered. "Maybe we're overreacting. Maybe we should wait and see...well, what there is to see? But keeping an escape route open?"

Sabin bit on his lip while he thought about this. "We can get the car in the garage, and then we don't have to go outside to get to transportation."

In the end, the Guns played "Rock, Paper, Scissors" to decide who would go outside. Shelley lost, so he ran outside as Sabin locked the door behind him and opened the garage door. When Shelley was safely back upstairs, Sabin sat by the window, watching the street below, and Shelley tried to find anything new on the news.

It was several hours before it happened. A few minutes after midday, Sabin and Shelley were both sitting by the window, trying to figure out a realistic plan for what they would do. When they saw the person shuffling down the street from the direction of the hospital, they couldn't take their eyes off him, just waiting to see what he would do. He seemed to just shamble along, uninterested by anything going on in the otherwise empty street. It wasn't until there was a high pitched squeal from a house a few along and over the street from Sabin's. The sound was quickly followed by laughter, clearly from a child with too much chocolate and sugar in their system, and it was a sound that should have been commonplace, not causing any issue. But upon hearing the sound, the man seemed to change. From a nearly comical shamble, the head snapped up as the Guns had seen earlier in the day, it emitted a sound almost like a snarl, and ran at the house.

It hit with full force, making the door shudder, but could not make it move farther than that. It hammered and howled, desperate to get in, leaving red smears on the immaculate white door every time the hands connected. A silhouette could be seen moving through the house, clearly heading towards the door. Both Guns thought briefly of distracting the creature, luring it away, but in a moment of cowardice neither would ever wish to admit, they stayed silent, fearing for themselves more than neighbours.

The creature had moved along the wall, away from the door, and lucky for the family within, away from the windows. The Guns, watching from the window, hoped and prayed silently that the creature would lose interest and move along. But they could see all too well what happened. They watched as the silhouette finally reached the door, as the clearly angry man opened the door, his finger outstretched to chastise the person banging on it. They watched as the creature heard the door open and set up the man, his screams drawing the other neighbours out; as the creature moved on from the man as soon as he was dead, to the other neighbours. And then, finally, as the attacked man rose, his throat torn open and arm hanging uselessly at his side, turned into the house, and then darted up the stairs.

Sabin very slowly pulled the curtains shut, trying not to attract any attention. Then he turned his back on the street and the neighbours dying below, looked at his tag team partner, and very calmly said "We have to get the hell out of here".

**


	3. Chapter 3

**

"You want to stay in Detroit? Did all those blows to the head impair your judgement, Chris?"

"Probably, but think about it: can you think of a place that we've spent more time, or a place where we know the layout better? I'm not by any means saying that we stayright here in this house, but if we could find something high-rise, or on the outskirts, then it'd be better than going somewhere that we're not familiar with!"

Shelley flicked the curtain in the study, surveying the street below. Tracks of red ran all over the road, from where people had tried to run. A few bodies still shambled along the street, calm now that there was no one in sight. The sun had tracked along the sky while they had planned so when they had reached the point of discussing a destination, it was already 3pm. Less than twenty four hours earlier, life had been relatively normal.

Shelley rubbed his eyes. It had been thirty one hours since he had last slept, and he had gone without for longer, but it felt like so much more. He stifled a yawn as he looked at the TV, trying to find a flaw in Sabin's reasoning, or just trying to avoid thinking about it for a moment. But all the TV did was highlight the urgency of the situation – it was simply showing a loop of attacks. They were different people in different places, but it all ended up the same. Zombies were rising all over, attacking, infecting and spreading like wildfire.

He sighed, looking at his long time friend. "So where do we go?"

**

Chris Sabin rubbed his eyes as he continued looking at the maps in front of him. He knew where he was going – he could drive there in his sleep, he knew it. But he wanted to make sure they had plotted the best possible path. There was no telling what might be in the streets, whether it was vehicles, people or possessions. He glanced up to see Alex Shelley asleep in the corner, curled tightly into a ball, gripping a golf club as if his life depended on it. Which, Sabin considered, it did. He had insisted that his friend get some sleep when he would not stop yawning, assuring him that it wasn't wasting time. There was no way they would be able to drive with all the panic going on outside.

For a moment, Sabin resenting his friend for sleeping so soundly, then shook his head, double checking the route they had decided on.

**  
Alex Shelley was sitting by the window, looking at the street below. He was trying to take an inventory of everything they had and everything they would need, but he just felt ridiculous. The world might be ending, and he was writing a shopping list.

Sabin had woken him an hour before, and even though he wanted nothing more than to remain asleep, Shelley could see that his tag team partner was in need of sleep. He took over the watch while Sabin shut his eyes. As Shelley watched the last shambling form make its way out of the street, he thought over all he had seen in the last few hours. Even after the sleep, he had a hard time comprehending how little time had passed. And then there had been the decision of where they were going to go.

**

Sabin had picked up a golf club, as it was one of the few weapons in the room that would provide some distance between himself and any attacker, and carefully snuck downstairs. When he had what he wanted, he had resisted the urge to run, and again, carefully crept back upstairs. Once back in the study, he had present Shelley with a newspaper, opened to page 5.

"See?"

"I'm looking at...real estate? It's the zombie apocalypse, and I'm looking at real estate. I didn't think you crack so quickly, Chris."

Sabin rolled his eyes and jabbed his finger into the middle of the page. "Millender Center Apartments. Thirty three floors, Detroit's highest residential building. The pent house is for sale, which means it's empty. Think about it; if we can get in there, then we can block off any stairs, fuck up the elevator after we're done with it, and be as secure as we sensibly can be! And it has a parking garage, so maybe we can use that."

"Chris, buddy, I knew there was a reason I kept you around!"

Sabin had rolled his eyes and snatched the paper out of Shelley's hands.

**

It was 3am when the blackout hit. Shelley only realised because the TV, which neither Gun had wanted to turn off in case something new happened, suddenly switched off. Shelley, not wanting to turn the lights on in case it drew attention to the house, tried to turn the computer monitor on, but it just sat there. Muttering to himself, Shelley felt about in the dark and located one of the torches he had collected earlier. Hating what they were about to do, he crawled over to where Sabin was sleeping and gingerly reached out his torch to tap his leg.

Shelley's instinct had been correct, as Sabin woke up swinging. He didn't quite have the coordination to spring to his feet, Shelley observed, but he was definitely swinging the golf club as hard as he could. "Calm down, Chris!" Shelley tried to soothe, just wanting his friend to stop trying to beat him to death.

Sabin came to his senses and glanced at the TV. "Why is the TV off?" he asked, running a hand through his hair. "And _damn _I am hungry!"

"Power went out a few minutes ago, but I think it's time we got going anyway." Shelley responded, picking up the bags loaded with items from downstairs that he had initially bought up in the panic. "Catch", he added, throwing a nut bar at Sabin.

While he was chewing, Sabin listened attentively to the low hum of Shelley's voice, filling him in on what he had missed. "They're still advising people to stay in their homes", he said with a snort, handing Sabin a torch, "and saying they don't know what caused it. Apparently a huge amount of people are fleeing the city, so good call on not trying that. The highways are packed, cars can't move at all. Apparently the Government is advising anyone who has been infected to report to Comercia Park, Ford Field or Joe Louis Arena, where they are treating the sick. Word is that treatment is a bullet to the head – they showed some footage of some protesters getting slaughtered. There were also some reports that people are trying to get the infected – family members, friends, that sort of thing, out of the city without the Government knowing about it. But all that managed to do was introduce some newly turned zombies onto the traffic jams on the highway."

"What about the roads that we need to take?"

"They showed a brief shot of them about an hour ago, and they looked mostly empty. A few cars, but nothing we can't get around. Not too many zombies lurking, either, but that really says nothing. The shots they showed of them just swarming to a location..."

Sabin looked at his friend with concern when he just trailed off, his voice growing softer with each word he spoke when he mentioned the swarms. Sabin pushed the thought from his mind, knowing that later they would probably both have a cry and get all the worry and fear out, but in that moment, they had to be focused.

Once they had everything collected, Sabin opened the study door. They quietly made their way through the house and into the garage, where Sabin unlocked the car. He winced as it beeped, and after a moment in which the Guns held their breath and tried to hear if anything was coming, started loading up the car. When Sabin climbed into the driver's side, secured his seatbelt and saw Shelley doing the same on the passenger side, he took a deep breath.

"You ready?" Sabin asked, turning to Shelley.

"Ready as I'll ever be, my friend."

With that, Sabin started the car, and Shelley picked up the remote to open the garage door. He clicked the small button, and together, they waited.

**


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter Four**

**

"It's quiet...too quiet."  
"Really Alex? You think _now _is the best time for that?"

Chris Sabin and Alex Shelley were driving slowly down an abandoned street, without headlights in the predawn light. They had driven from the garage, breath held, both convinced something would be lying in wait. But they had gotten to the end of the street, and then to the main road, with no incident. It had been a few minutes of terrified silence before Shelley cracked. He couldn't take the quiet, so he had started spewing any corny line he could think of.

Sabin was used to this from his friend and tag team partner, but couldn't think of a worse time for him to be joking around. Silence fell between the two again, and Sabin was left with his thoughts. Looking for any obstacles in the path of the car, he couldn't help but think that even with everything that was happening, Shelley was right. It was too quiet.

For a city that, until recently, had a population of 900,000 people, had just a few days ago seen what was, in effect, a zombie uprising, there should've been action. People screaming, people running. The undead walking the streets, throwing themselves at anything with a pulse. Even those most morally reprehensible people (who Sabin fully intended to join the ranks of as soon as he could), looters, were nowhere to be seen. He considered pointing this out to Shelley, but Chris Sabin was a firm believer in Murphy's Law, and was convinced that if he voiced his opinion, hordes of the undead would come forth from every doorway, window and alley that they passed.

As they continued, it started to grow lighter. Both men leant forwards, trying to see if it was the sun coming up unusually early, but any natural light was being blocked by the buildings around them. When they turned the corner, they found the source of the light. A line of burning cars had been placed across the road.

"Oh, awesome, some flame happy fucker has decided that fire is a good idea." Shelley muttered.  
"Can you see any way around them?" Sabin asked, craning his neck to try to find a gap in the burning vehicles.  
"No, but they're not straight, so maybe there's a way... ah, fuck it. Get as close as you can." Sabin nodded, inching the car forward, trying to see another way. "Keep the car running, be ready to drive, and for the love of God, don't yell." Shelley said resolutely.

And with that, he unbuckled his seatbelt, opened the car door and got out of the car. Sabin opened his mouth to yell at Shelley, ask him what he was doing or to tell him to get back in the car, but bit his tongue as he remembered what had just been said. He watched as Shelley jogged up to the line of cars and proceeded to run along the edge, looking for a way through. Sabin held his breath as Shelley turned and started coming back toward the idling car. As he glanced over his shoulder, something came hurtling out of the alleyway from the other direction. The creature was moving so quickly that Sabin didn't have time to warn him. Before he had managed to even open his mouth, it had slammed into Shelley, knocking them both to the ground.

Fingers digging into Shelley's arms, teeth gnashing above him, he frantically glanced around for anything he could use as a weapon as he tried to hold the creature back. Any weapons that were in arms length would have meant a death sentence. In a split second, he weighed his options: He could try to hold the creature back and be shortly overpowered, or he could reach for a weapon and hope that he could somehow get a hit in before he was eaten alive. His internal commentary running wild, Alex Shelley reasoned that he'd rather neither of those be the outcome.

As the zombie inched closer, Shelley thought that he should maybe make peace with his maker, whoever that could be. It was Easter, after all, he realised with a start. Easter Sunday. In that moment of realisation, the teeth sunk lower, the grip tightened. Shelley closed his eyes, heard a dull, somewhat wet _thunk _sound, and suddenly felt like a weight had been lifted off him. Shelley opened his eyes.

Chris Sabin didn't have time to warn his friend before he was attacked, but he wasn't going to let that stop him. Any thoughts of staying in the car forgotten, he undid his seatbelt, opened the door and nearly rolled out of the vehicle. He didn't have a plan at the time, and if a word had been going through his head, it would have simply been _rescue_, though the adrenalin prevented such a thought. As he fell out of the car, though, he heard a clanging noise. When he reached down, he felt cold, hard metal and the unmistakable shape of a crowbar. Springing to his feet, weapon in hand, he ran at the zombie and swung as hard as he could at the head. As soon as he felt it connect, he raised his leg and kicked at the now lifeless body.

Shelley opened his eyes and saw Sabin standing over him, crowbar in hand. He grasped the hand that was extended and sprang up, and together both men ran back to the car. They saw it at the same time. As they were pulling the doors shut, more bodies came out of the alley. There were dozens of them, and as one, they surged for the car.

"GO GO FUCKING GO!" Shelley screamed.

Sabin threw the car into reverse and back up the street, the spot he had just been now filled with bodies. He spun the car around and, any thought of obstacles in the street gone from his mind, drove as fast as he could.

**

"You're going to draw more attention to us if you keep that up." Shelley pointed out after a few minutes.

Sabin, who felt like he had been holding his breath for the last 3 minutes, exhaled, nodded, and took his foot off the accelerator.

"Thanks for that back there man, it was..." Shelley trailed off, unable to think of the appropriate word.

"Don't be a jackass, jackass." Sabin responded, relief flooding across his face. "But next time you decide to do something so fucking stupid, how about you let me in on your plan, huh?"

Alex nodded his agreement, rubbing his arms absentmindedly.

**

"Parking garage," Sabin announced as he pulled up to the entrance, putting the car in neutral. "What do you think; stairs or elevator?"

Shelley ran a hand through his hair, considering. "Shit, I don't know...elevator, I guess."

"Got something to bash heads with?"

Shelley held up the golf club he had found in the backseat. "Check."

"Fan-fucking-tastic." Sabin muttered, slowly making his way up the rant. "Here we go, then."

**

They waited as the elevator slowly made its way up. They had passed through the parking garage without incident, waiting nervously for the elevator to arrive when it was called. Once they had stepped in, they had breathed a combined sigh of relief. Both men continued to clutch their makeshift weapons, ready to defend themselves the moment the need arose.

"By the way," Shelley said, turning slightly to face Sabin. "Happy Easter."

Sabin smiled. "Happy Easter to you too, man."

**


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter Five**

**

The elevator arrived with a resounding _ding_, causing the two men within to cringe. It seemed to them that every noise they tuned out in everyday life was now like a siren, attracting everything near and far. As the doors slid open, they found themselves on the thirty-third floor of the Millender Center Apartments – the penthouse. It was the highest residential building in Detroit, and they had decided that it would be the best option for a safe haven, an island above the teeming undead. They didn't know what the state of the rest of the building would be, how many people would be in it or even who would still be alive, but they were going to barricade themselves off from the rest of the world.

But first they had to get in.

Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin exited the elevator, looking cautiously around, but soon saw that the hallway they had stepped into was straight, short, and the only area that could contain someone was the fire exit to the side, which still had the break glass intact. But they didn't relax, as at the end of the corridor was their destination.

"Again – we knock to see if anyone or thing is inside. If there's no response, we go in, do a sweep. Assess what's there and then what we need. Then we just need to get supplies, restrict access, and we're golden."

"Oh, is that all Chris? I was worried for nothing."

"Shut the hell up, Alex."

Sabin walked up to the door and glanced at his friend. There were no words to describe how much he didn't want to be the one to knock, to find out what was potentially in the apartment. But there was no choice, and it was not the time to delay. He knocked firmly on the door three times.

They waited.

When there was no sound from within, he repeated this action, this time followed by Shelley putting his ear to the door to listen.

"I don't hear anything."

"So open it."

"Me open it? Why do I have to open it?"

"Because I said so!"

"That's not a reason!"

"Fine then, because I'm older and I say so."

"But I'm prettier, and age before beauty, so you open it!"

This whole exchange was conducted in hoarse whispers, and was finally settled by a game of 'Rock, Paper, Scissors'.

"You know, we've got to stop deciding life or death things with that stupid game." Shelley grumbled, gripping the doorknob.

"You're only saying that because you always lose. Do you really think it'll be unlocked?"

Shelley looked at Sabin and grinned, turning the doorknob. When the door didn't swing open, his face fell. "Well, it would've been awesome if it did work, ok?" Shelley said, kneeling in front of the lock. "You're just lucky I'm so multi-talented and know how to pick a lock."

"You learnt on YouTube, Alex, and you broke nearly all of my locks practicing. Don't try to pull that with me."

"I got you new locks, didn't I?" Shelley responded as the lock clicked. Picking up his weapon as Sabin held his at the ready, he swung the door open.

Sabin let out an involuntary whistle. "This place is nice."

Shelley shot him a warning glance, and Sabin focused on the task at hand. Shelley closed the door, and together they did a sweep of the apartment to see if there were any other inhabitants. When they found none, Shelley went back to the main entrance and locked the door, and Sabin walked through, taking the time to properly survey his surroundings.

"As advertised," he called from the bedroom. "Two bedrooms, two bath. Balconies, living, kitchen... and hey, furnished. This'll do just fine." Sabin heard a grunt coming from the lounge, and entered the room to see Shelley relaxing on the couch, belt undone, hand resting on his stomach, looking as if he was watching TV at home. Sabin sat down on the couch opposite, and found himself just staring out the glass doors. His eyes started to droop, and as safe as they could be, the Motor City Machine Guns slept.

**

Shelley awoke with a start. He rubbed a hand over his face, trying to wake up fully. He stood up and stumbled into the bathroom, where he was promptly sick. Turning on the cold water, he rinsed his mouth and splashed cold water in his face. He was looking at his reflection when he remembered the events of that morning. Pulling off his shirt, he gingerly felt his arms. They had been bruised when the zombie had gripped them, but nothing, Shelley considered, that he hadn't endured in a wrestling ring. He noticed five particularly deep bruises on each arm – finger sized – which he carefully washed. He then stuck his head under the tap and drank as much as he felt he could carry.

Once done, he went back to the lounge, where Sabin was still asleep. Shelley knew there were still things that needed to be done, but the sun was high in the sky, and he didn't know when would be the best time to do it. He left Sabin to sleep while he had a further look around the apartment. Using the real estate application forms and pens that had been left in the kitchen as scrap paper, he itemised everything that he could find that he thought would be useful. Once he had done that, he wrote a list of everything they were going to need. It was as Sabin woke up that Shelley again had the realisation that at the end of the world, he was writing a shopping list.

"Hey buddy," Shelley greeted Sabin. "When you're ready, we have some shopping to do."

**

In the end, it didn't take them long to decide where they would go and when. Both men wanted their 'shopping' expedition to be done with, and both thought that while there was still some living in the city – "decoys", Shelley said grimly – they would have a better chance of avoiding any trouble. That same afternoon, they collected their weapons (they found themselves feeling safer when they thought of them as weapons, not just a golf club and a crowbar) and list in hand, headed downstairs.

**

"Wal-Mart. I fucking hate Wal-Mart. It's not safe even when everyone is normal. Fucking Wal-Mart."

"Alex, it has everything we need. Better to only stop once, right?"

"But won't it be full of people?"

"God I hope not. But look, it's closed. Hopefully that means there'll be no one in there. Drive around to the back, maybe it'll be easier to get in by the loading dock."

As they drove around, they saw clear signs of a fight having happened. Tools reassigned as weapons littered the ground, mangled corpses, and trails of blood. Shelley was silently praying as they drove around, hoping that there wouldn't be trails in front of their destination. He breathed a sigh of relief when they got there and found that the only blood appeared to be dry, at least a day old. They climbed out of the car, and after climbing the fence to reach the tools, found bolt cutters. With these, they managed to get into the store. The power was still out, but the daylight was shining in through the windows above.

Sabin looked across at Shelley when he heard him muttering, and realised that he was repeating "Please be empty, please be empty, please be empty."

Sabin just grinned.

"It's looting time."

**


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter Six**

It was empty - Alex Shelley had gotten his wish. Chris Sabin had also gotten his wish granted, though it was less innocent than Shelley's. All Sabin's life, he had wanted one thing more than anything else, but it wasn't a professional goal, or a life goal, or even a personal goal. It was a dirty little secret, a goal that he couldn't share with anyone because that wasn't who 'Chris Sabin' was. He had wanted to loot, without responsibilities or concerns for the law or having to compete with other looters. He was faced with other problems, of course, namely the zombie apocalypse, but Sabin put it out of his mind. He had finally gotten to loot.

**

On their way back to their refuge, they saw for only the second time, a group of zombies. They appeared to be in their 'calm' state until they saw the car, and then they changed dramatically. Scrabbling to get over one another, screeching, moving faster then would be believed possible. Sabin and Shelley knew that there was no hope of them being caught in the car, so they simply sped up to get away. It did, however, worry them. Despite being only the second group they had seen, it was twice the size of the first, and they were concerned at the rate the groups seemed to be growing.

But knowing that they had an area that was about to be as safe as possible, had supplies to last them several years (Shelley had insisted that they take the necessary supplies to plant a garden, so that they could continue to have fresh fruit and vegetables), and could put the troubles of Detroit out of their mind for a time, they were not too concerned.

They were using the elevator in the parking garage to move supplied when it happened. At first they thought they were hearing voices, but after a minute of waiting, a figure appeared at the top of the ramp. It screamed at them. "Can you help me?!"

"Holy shit.." Sabin said, realising that it was still a living, breathing human.

"Get over here!" Shelley yelled, hastily depositing the box he was holding in the elevator.

As the person started limping towards them, Shelley and Sabin heard the screeching. Though they had heart it only a few times before, it was unmistakable. The person was being hunted. The tag team backed into the elevator, watching the figure advance on them. As they were watching, they saw two other figures, running without impediment, pause at the top of the ramp, glance behind them, and then run down the ramp to the lower level.

Shelley and Sabin were yelling at the man to hurry as the horde came into view. After the momentary shock of the sheer number of them, the Guns redoubled their yells, urging the man forward, but neither willing to leave the safety of the elevator.

"You're almost here, hurry!" Sabin yelled, but even as he did, he could see that the horde was almost upon the man.

Just a few metres from the elevator, the horde overwhelmed the man, and Shelley, seeing that he could not possibly make it, started pounding furiously on the button to close the door. As Sabin stood prepared to defend himself, waiting for the doors to close, those zombies closest to them realised that there were more bodies nearby. Their heads whipped up and they surged for the elevator as the doors were closing.

Sabin and Shelley started hitting any piece of exposed flesh they could see, trying to stop those that had been caught as the door was closed. Shelley had almost cleared his side of bodies when Sabin let out a deafening yell and redoubled his efforts on the limbs still in the door. Shelley joined him, and a few moments later, the doors had closed and they were travelling up.

Both men were breathing hard as the elevator rose. Shelley closed his eyes for a brief moment and then, reopening them, looked at all the boxes around them. "We should try to get this stuff in while we still can."  
Sabin simply grunted. Shelley looked at him and was shocked by the man he saw. Though neither looked what could be described as 'good' after the last few days, he knew Chris Sabin, and had seen him at his best and worst, but never like this. He was pale and sweating, his face screwed up in pain while he clutched his arm close to him, blood soaking into his shirt.  
"What happened, Chris?"  
The elevator again reached its destination with a self-satisfied _ding_, but Shelley just stood, staring at his friend.  
"Sabin, tell me what happened!"

Chris Sabin looked up at his best friend. "You know what happened."

"Bullshit. It's just a scratch or something, you're fine. Let's go patch you up."

"Don't be an idiot, Shelley, you know I'm right."

"No." Shelley said, so calmly that Sabin was taken aback. Taking advantage of his shock, Shelley pulled Sabin into a headlock and dragged him down the hallway. "We're going to patch you up, and you'll be fine!" Shelley panted as he pulled Sabin along.

Sabin knew it, in his heart, that what Shelley was doing wasn't going to help him. He knew that he had been bitten, and he had seen what that meant. He knew he had to somehow convince Shelley of it, or slip away before he could hurt the other man. Sabin was roughly deposited on a bed and Shelley disappeared. He went to push himself up, but his tag team partner was back before he had realised what had happen. "Sorry it took me so long, man, I couldn't remember which box it was in. This is going to sting like a bitch." And with that, Shelley poured half a bottle of antiseptic onto Sabin's arm. "You..didn't even react. Didn't that hurt?" Shelley questioned.

Everything seemed to be going fuzzy, and Sabin wasn't able to read the label on the bottle. He tried to focus on Shelley's face, on the patch of blonde in his hair, but Sabin found his vision – and his mind – wandering. The big blur that was sometimes Shelley's face suddenly whipped to the side, and Sabin shook his head to try to stop it from spinning. He vaguely heard Shelley swearing, and felt, more than saw, him standing up, crossing the room and closing the door.

Before Chris Sabin blacked out, he tried to call out to his friend, to his brother, not to go. Knowing, even on the edge of consciousness what it meant, how selfish it was, to condemn another. But it didn't matter. The words never escaped his lips.

And then all he knew was darkness.

**

As Shelley tried to clean up Sabin's wound, frantic, trying to think of a way to avoid the truth, the inevitable. They both knew that Sabin had been bitten, and being bitten seemed to mean only one thing; you would soon be dead and very soon after that...well, you wouldn't dead anymore. But you wouldn't be you, either.

As he was placing padding over Sabin's arm so that he could bandage it, he heard a banging on the door, followed by hysterical pleas.

"Son of a fucking bitch!" Shelley swore – at himself, at those people, at Sabin – and stood up. "I'll be back in a second, alright? Hang on a minute, I'll be back in no time at all." Shelley said to Sabin, crossing the room and pulling the door closed behind him.

"Please, you have to help us!"

"They're coming up the stairs!"

"Oh, for the love of God, LET US IN!"

Shelley stood by the door, hesitant. "Who are you?"

"Oh God, there is someone in there! Were you in the parking garage? In the elevator! We saw you! Please, let us in!"

Shelley had his hand on the doorknob when had a realisation. "How did you get up here?!"

"The stairs! Oh God, please hurry, they're coming!"

"How far behind you?"

"Who cares, they're almost fucking here! Why the fuck won't you let us-" The plea was cut off mid-sentence by a cacophony of screams. Shelley had blocked them out. He had already started moving furniture against the door to barricade it – he had seen, not four days ago, how they dealt with stairs. They moved faster up stairs than a human could ever hope to. Shelley also knew that Sabin wouldn't be safe with more people around. After he had moved all he could in front of the doors, long after the screams had died down and been replaced by two new set of screeches, he went back to the bedroom door.

He knocked gently. "Sabin, buddy, how are you doing? I'm going to come in now, ok?" As Shelley reached down to open the door, a great force collided with it and the whole wall seemed to shake. "It can't be.." he muttered to himself, but didn't open the door. Something collided with the door again, and the wall shook. Shelley backed up from the door, staring, horror struck. This couldn't be happening, he wouldn't believe it. When his back reached the wall, he slid down it, not taking his eyes off the door.

After a while, he noticed that there seemed to be a kind of rhythm to it – Sabin would run into the wall, or the door, or whatever he happened to find, the wall would shake, the horde at the front door would scratch and hammer, and then Sabin would start up again. Round and round it went.

Shelley had been sitting in the same spot for an hour when the front door started to crack. It was simply not meant for so much pressure, and not for a prolonged period. There had been no time to reinforce it, or zombie-proof anything, Shelley realised with a numb efficiency. There was so much that needed to be done.

He swore at himself. He hadn't spent the time sitting there thinking of a way to escape, or a way to save Sabin. He'd just been wasting his time. He stood, and took several paces, but this just infuriated those around him more. Their banging, scratching and screeching just grew, their need clear. Shelley stared at the door, at the objects he'd used to try to fortify it. Though the shock, he managed to register that he had only used objects of a waist heist.

He let out a soft 'huh', and Sabin threw himself against the door again.

"Hey, Sabin buddy, you listening? I've got something I need to tell you. Just let run into the wall if you're listening."

_Thud_.

"Awesome. Now, I just want you to know... well, you're my best friend."

_Thud._

"And you're like my brother. You always will be."

_Thud._

"I'm so sorry I let this happen to you... I know you're hopeless, I should've taken better care of you."

_Thud._

Panelling came away from the door.

"Maybe I didn't take care of you in this life like I should've."

_Thud_.

Hands started coming through the door, scrapping at the side of the hole, trying to enlarge it.

"But we're brothers, and if you'll let me, I'd like to try again. I'll take care of you properly this time."

_Thud_.

They were almost through.

"We can take care of each other."

Alex Shelley ran his hand through his hair and wiped the tears out of his eyes. He stepped forward and grasped the doorknob. He swung the door open, and for a brief moment, saw Chris Sabin. The new Chris Sabin. And then he felt pain, and then he knew no more.


End file.
